Gloucestershire Home Births Set to Resume Before Christmas

Home births in Gloucestershire are slated to recommence before the Christmas holiday period. This follows the temporary closure of Cheltenham's Aveta Birth Centre, which was taken offline in 2022. The closure was attributed to staff shortages and the necessity of ensuring safety standards were met. Consequently, home births within the county were suspended in November 2025 due to escalating safety concerns.

Recent assessments by Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors indicate that the maternity services are "certainly on the right path with maternity." This positive feedback suggests significant progress has been achieved since May, when the trust acknowledged that more work was required for the unit's safe reopening. The trust now anticipates restarting home birth services by the close of the year.